How To Travis Pick on Guitar - The ULTIMATE Fingerpicking Pattern

Hey, guitar enthusiasts. My name is Lauren Bateman and we are going to be going over one of the most important finger picking patterns. It's probably the only finger picking pattern that you need to learn. I find this to be one of the most useful picking patterns as it can turn simple chords into something really magical. If you play this in front of family and friends, you are absolutely going to impress them. And the pattern is called Travis Picking. Okay. It's named after Merle Travis, who made this very, very popular and very famous. And there are some different variations on this pattern, but I'm going to show you the one that my guitar teacher taught me many years ago when I was learning songs like Landslide, Dust in the Wind, Blackbird. And it's a really great pattern that you could really apply to any song if you wanted to folk it up or just make it sound really interesting. Now, before I jump into showing you this pattern and how to play it step by step, let me just quickly demonstrate some of those songs. Let's start with Dust in the Wind.

What about Blackbird.

Or the song that I learned this pattern on?

Landslide. Such a beautiful song. And when I first learned this pattern, I practiced it in front of the T and I felt like such an awesome guitar player. And you will too. So let's get started.

Now, I mentioned earlier that there are some variations to this, but the most important thing is the bass pattern. So let's start there. Usually, Travis picking has this defined bass line in the back. Okay. And it makes it sound like we have a bass player playing along with us. Okay. And what you're going to do with this bass line is going to depend on the chord. Okay? So I'm going to use the chords G, C and D. So we have an example of a six string chord, the G chord. We have an example of a five string chord, C. And we have an example of a four string chord. Because you're doing something just a little bit different on each of these chords. Okay, so six string chords. Let's start with our G chord. The thumb is going to alternate between the sixth string and the fourth string. So just try that with me. And it's going to be 1, 2, 1, 2, 3, 4. So the bass is always on the downbeat. Okay? One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. And you can see I'm just alternating between the sixth string and the fourth string. Okay, so we're skipping over. We're jumping over the fifth string. Now when I move to something like a C chord, the thumb is going to play.

Five and four.

Okay. Back and forth. One, two, three, four. One, two, three, three, four. Okay. And I'm doing this with the fleshy part of my thumb. Some people ask me, Lauren, should I use a thumb pick? Do I use my fingernails? It's really a personal preference. I prefer using my fingers. I like feeling the strings. But it's up to you. You can do this with a thumb pick as well. Now let's move to our four string chord, the D. This we're going to alternate between 3 and 4. Or sorry, 4 and 3, 4. 3, 4, 3. So 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4. That's our Tim.

Okay. So depending on even a D minor chord, if you have a four string chord, a five string chord, or a six string chord, that thumb is going to do something a little bit different. So let's just go through a little progression. So you guys can practice that. We're going to do a G chord for two measures, a C chord for two measures, and then we're going to do a D chord for two measures. Ready? So we got 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, 3, 4.

C.

And D.

There you go. So that is the backbone of Travis picking is really that alternating bass pattern. So what we're going to do now is we're going to talk about the notes that go in between that bass line, which means we have to talk a little bit about this finger picking him more. Especially if you're newer to finger picking. So in terms of where you put your hand, I like to put my pinky on the body of the guitar. For me, that works really well. I find it comfortable. Some people don't like that. Some people like to have their hands free floating. Okay. So meaning their fingers are just touching the strings and everything's kind of free floating. Find what works best for you. I don't mind you putting your pinky on the guitar like I do, as long as it's not stuck to the guitar. And I will sometimes change my hand depending on what I'm doing. Sometimes you will see my fingers resting on the high E string. It just depends on what's comfortable from what I'm playing at the time. Now I'm going to use this G chord because I just love that low bass note on that G chord. And what we're going to do, we're going to talk about our first finger and our second finger. Okay. For the finger picking hand. So our thumb is taking care of the bass. We got that. Okay. And our first finger and our second finger are taking care of the Treble notes. Now, to start, we're going to have the first finger on the G string and our second finger on the B string. Okay. So they each own their own individual string. Okay. And I'm going to either say thumb and then one for the index finger, two for the middle finger. Now there is what we call pima P I, M A. And it's a bunch of latter terms, but for me, I find it easy to use the string or the finger numbers when we're doing this. I think it's just a little easier to process the information. So we're going to be starting off with thumb, thumb, one. That's the first three notes. Thumb, thumb, one. Okay. Remember, the timing of our bass notes is 1, 2, 3, 4. So it's 1, 2, and 1, 2, and 3, 4. 1, 2, and 3, four.

Okay, so it's thumb, thumb, one.

Okay. That's the first half of our pattern. So it's thumb, thumb, once. You might want to put Pause the video and just practice doing that over and over again in time. So the second half of the pattern is what we call outside, inside. We're going to be playing the outside strings. So in this case of the G chord, it's the sixth string and that B string. Okay. And then the inside strings are going to be the fourth string and the third string. So you're starting far apart and then coming inside. And how we're going to play that. These are all eighth notes. So this would be three and four and. Okay, three and four and. Right. So those are the treble notes going between the bass note and the timing on this is going to be 1, 2 and 3 and 4 and 1, 2 and 3 and 4and. All right, so it's going to sound like this. Okay, Very slow. I'm going to go thumb, thumb 1, thumb 2, thumb 1, thumb, thumb 1, thumb 2nd, thumb 1. That's the pattern. Let me pick up the speed a little bit. Sometimes it's hard to do that slow. So 1, 2, and 3 and 4. M.

There it is. You got it.

So that's our G chord. We're going to do the same thing on the C chord. But like I said, you're just going to change the thumb. So it's playing strings five and four. But there is one big change we need to make for our four string chords. Because we said earlier, our first and second fingers are on strings B and G. Right. Well, when we come to a D chord, we have to shift everything down. So now it's thumb, thumb, one, thumb two, Thumb one. And we're on strings four, then three, two, four. One, three, two. All right, so we have to shift everything down just one string each.

But the pattern is still the same. All right, so what we're gonna do now, we're gonna practice together. Okay? And I'm gonna go to slightly slower speed, but not too slow that it's kind of hard to play. We're start on this G chord. Okay? And this is the tempo. 1, 2, 3, 4. 1, 2, and 3 and 4. And so, see, once those eight come in, it feels fast because we're putting twice as many notes in the same amount of time. All right, so we're going to do two measures of G, two measures of C, two measures of D. And then we're going to go through that a couple times just so that you have something to practice with. And again, if I'm still going too fast, use the settings cog. Slow me right down. You put me at 75% speed, I'll sound like drunk Lauren, and that's perfectly fine with me. All right, so we're going to have our nice slow speed. So I want 1, 2, and 3 and 4. And 1, 2, and 3 and four. And.

To C.

To d.

Back to G.

To c.

To d.

And g.

One more time to c.

D.

Fantastic. And you may have heard me make a little mistake on that last D chord, but the important thing with these patterns is to keep going. As long as you keep the timing, you are going to sound good. And if you want to apply this pattern to a specific song, go check out my Dust in the Wind lesson right over there, where I'm going to show you how you can add the pluck to this pattern for a really cool and unique sound.